Who doesn’t want to take over the world? Certainly I do and first against the wall would be those that insist I use the word WHOM at the start of a sentence like this

We got to play Imperial 2030 on Thur night too. For those who haven’t tried this or the earlier version (just plain Imperial) you are missing out. Imperial 2030 is a glorious map based conquer the world type game. Playing it is like being a football manager (without the chewing gum) insofar as you never know when you’ll be given the heave ho and another bungee manger will be appointed in your place. Them’s the breaks. You can be doing a fantastic job of managing Europe and WHAM! someone likes it so much they buy the company.

I’ve spoken before about Imperial, it’s a game that returns to our table again and again, with a good sized group (six) it becomes the ideal desert island game. It also plays out in a relatively short time for such an epic undertaking. It’s quite possible to get a game completed in under three hours and that’s no bad thing.

The mantra of this game which is oft repeated is that you don’t OWN a country….. you invest in it. Anyone who has the largest share in a country is the manager of it and controls it’s armies, production, taxation and pockets any bonuses associated with same. What I love about this game is it’s a valid tactic to allow another player to take ownership of your country and run it better than you can and still profit from the experience. The Ferengi would be proud.

The game is not so much about taking over the world (which is practically impossible), it’s about carving out the biggest empire you can and leeching as much tax money from it as you can before some other keen nation nips in and puts you back in your cage. Do it right and everyone will want to buy shares in your empire, do it too right and they’ll want to muscle in and take over your operation.

There were a few new players to the game on Thur and like me first time around they struggled to get a strategy. Although the mechanics are not that complicated and the tactics are fairly obvious an overall strategy to win the game is stupendously complex. Mine has always been black and white. Do your best. Kill Drax. It’s worked fairly well for me. I came second so maybe my strategy needs a tweek

As players invest in countries and take ownership of them it quite often happens that they wind up controlling two or more countries and some players wind up with none in which case they become Swiss bankers (I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere). As a Swiss banker you get to invest more often however it’s a dangerous limbo to inhabit as you no longer get bonuses for taxation when you don’t manage the country. That said you get to invest more, but you don’t get tax bonuses, invest, tax bonuses, invest/tax…. it’s a balancing act. I’ve seen players win purely as swiss bankers but it’s a tricky feat to do

That said owning multiple countries can be a burden, especially if they were two countries that were recently at war and you now have to untangle them and make them both profitable again.

There’s never a dull moment when you play Imperial. When you leave the table your mind is still spinning like a gyroscope trying to figure out how to play it better and THAT’S the measure of a really good game. /cheesy grin and wink

More of that next thur. Hopefully I’ll have learnt the rules for Constonopolis, but there’s a fair chance I won’t